I don't think it's so much about bootstrapping vs. funded as just being frugal.<p>Not all bootstrapped companies are low on money, some had plenty of their own to put in, or others have achieved profitability.<p>This is a way of running a company for sure, but I think it would be better put as "Frugal is a state of mind".
"In a way, it wasn’t really a sense of accomplishment for us; the funding simply signified the beginning of additional hard work to be done and the responsibility we owed to our investors."<p>I like to think this is the attitude I'd have if I ever got funded. I see the same thing play out with grant funding in education. Sometimes big grants are seen as piles of cash; the educators I respect most always see big grants as the beginning of some hard but hopefully meaningful work.